Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 308

Karla's Arrival

2011

Karla's Arrival

2011
In Managua, Nicaragua, teenager Sujeylin Aguilar raises her newborn daughter Karla on the same streets she has been calling home for the past eight years. Based in a city park and part of a larger group of youngsters, mother and baby struggle to reach the little one's first birthday. Beautifully told and full of hope, Karla's Arrival offers an intense personal story about second generation street children.
Survival Prayer

2013

Survival Prayer

2013
'Survival Prayer' explores the power of food, nature and culture. On a remote archipelago in Western Canada, an uncommon abundance of wildlife has sustained the Haida people for countless generations. Here, a last speaker frames a moving portrait of these sacred food systems at risk. Rich with spectacular scenery of the North Pacific coastline and detailed views of wild food gathering and preservation, 'Survival Prayer' is a story of possibility amid deep loss.
Finding Dawn

2006

Finding Dawn

2006
Métis filmmaker Christine Welsh puts a human face on a national tragedy: the murders and disappearances of an estimated 500 Aboriginal women in Canada over the past 30 years. Explores the deep historical, social, and economic factors that contribute to this epidemic of violence against Native women.
A Girl and a Gun

2013

A Girl and a Gun

2013
A Girl and A Gun shows the female perspective on an object whose history is deeply bound to men and masculinity. The classic Hollywood portrayals of pistol packin' mamas, tomboy sharp shooters, sexually twisted femme fatales, and high-heeled, cold-blooded assassins are caricatures. In truth, the typical woman who hangs out at rifle ranges and keeps ammo in her purse is the girl-next-door, the single mom, a hard working sister or aunt. Maybe she's a realist or has learned tough lessons from life; either way, she cares about her personal safety and may even find salvation, comfort or something satisfying in possessing a gun. In a word, she is empowered. Breaking through the caricatures, A Girl and a Gun reveals America's diverse and far-ranging female gun community. It depicts how this community is portrayed by the media and targeted by the gun industry; and shows, through personal stories, how guns change women's lives.
H.O.T. Human Organ Traffic

2009

H.O.T. Human Organ Traffic

2009
Roberto Orazi turns the camera on the lives of some of those involved in the scourge of the global traffic in human organs: lives united by a momentary hope and separated by that abstract yet insurmountable border called the North-South divide. This shocking documentary exposes the players who claim they know nothing of the crimes they commit.
Released

2013

Released

2013
In “Released,” drawn from an Off Broadway play, four New Yorkers recount their criminal pasts and their struggles to stay out of jail.
The Learning

2011

The Learning

2011
Synopsis One hundred years ago, American teachers established the English-speaking public school system of the Philippines. Now, in a striking turnabout, American schools are recruiting Filipino teachers. The Learning is the story of four Filipina women who reluctantly leave their families and schools to teach in Baltimore. With their increased salaries, they hope to transform their families� lives back in their impoverished country.
$100 and a T-Shirt: A Documentary About Zines in the Northwest

2004

$100 and a T-Shirt: A Documentary About Zines in the Northwest

2004
A cultural analysis of what causes zine makers to tick; what the hell zines are, why people make zines, the origin of zines, the resources and community available for zine makers, and the future of zines. Interviews with about 70 zine makers, ex-zine makers, and readers from the northwest. Featuring footage of the Portland Zine Symposium, a zine bicycle tour of Portland, and activities bringing zine culture to life. Music by J Church and Defiance, Ohio.
The War of 33: Letters from Beirut

2008

The War of 33: Letters from Beirut

2008
The War of 33 is an intimate, personal and powerful telling of the story of the 2006 war in Lebanon. A series of letters written by Hanady Salman--a mother living through the war in Beirut--carve a narrative arc through the intense and haunting images of conflict. She tells the stories of her family and the people she lives the war with--the refugees, the wounded, and the everyday Lebanese, struggling to maintain their sanity and their humanity during a time of war.
Fairytale

2007

Fairytale

2007
Fairytale chronicles the making of an installation-cum-performance of the same name. In 2007, Ai Weiwei invited 1001 Chinese citizens of varying ages and backgrounds to travel to Kassel, Germany, for one week each, all expenses paid. This film describes the many challenges facing the artist and his volunteers in coordinating the work.
Strange Fruit

2002

Strange Fruit

2002
In 1937, after seeing a photo depicting the lynching of a black man in the south, Bronx-born high school teacher Abel Meeropol wrote a poem entitled "Strange Fruit" that begins with the words: "Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root." He set the poem to music and a few years later convinced Billy holiday to record it in a legendary heartbreaking performance. Intertwining jazz genealogy, biography, performance footage, and the history of lynching, director Joel Katz fashions a fascinating discovery of the lost story behind a true American classic. Written by Excerpted from Coolidge Corner Theatre Program Update
Short Cut to Nirvana: Kumbh Mela

2004

Short Cut to Nirvana: Kumbh Mela

2004
Every 12 years over 70 million pilgrims gather at the meeting of India's holiest rivers, the Ganges and the Yamuna, for a spectacular spiritual festival: the Kumbh Mela. This documentary takes a voyage of discovery through this colorful event through the eyes of several Westerners and an ebullient young Hindu monk, Swami Krishnanand. Featuring encounters with some of India's most respected holy men and exclusive footage of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Warrior Marks

1994

Warrior Marks

1994
WARRIOR MARKS is a poetic and political film about female genital mutilation from the director of A PLACE OF RAGE, presented by the Pulitzer Prize winning author of THE COLOR PURPLE and POSSESSING THE SECRET OF JOY. Female genital mutilation affects one hundred million of the world’s women and this remarkable film unlocks some of the cultural and political complexities surrounding this issue. Interviews with women from Senegal, Gambia, Burkino Faso, the United States and England who are concerned with and affected by genital mutilation are intercut with Walker’s own personal reflections on the subject.
Into the Shadows

2009

Into the Shadows

2009
Explores behind the big screen to meet the filmmakers, distributors and exhibitors who bring Australian films to us, the audience. Closures of many independent art-house cinemas like Electric Shadows in Canberra in 2006 have made fair and equitable screening of Australian films increasingly difficult. Exhibitors debate the efficacy of the industry's Code of Conduct and unfair trade practices, while a growing number of Australian films go unreleased.
Spiritual Revolution

2008

Spiritual Revolution

2008
Spiritual Revolution examines Eastern Spirituality in the West: its origins, forms, and the many ways it has evolved and been embraced in the United States as a philosophy and an ethical approach to life. The film explores various forms of Hinduism and Buddhism through interviews with a Whos Who of spiritual leaders, swamis, gurus, Zen Masters and Tibetan Lamas as well as scientists, psychotherapists and scholars.
Electric Edwardians - The Films Of Mitchell And Kenyon

2005

Electric Edwardians - The Films Of Mitchell And Kenyon

2005
Archive footage, recently discovered, shot by the Edwardian documentary film-makers Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon. Selected from a total of 28 hours of material, this compilation is grouped into five sections: 'Youth and Education'; 'The Anglo-Boer War'; 'Workers'; 'High Days and Holidays' and 'People and Places'. It includes footage of ordinary people going about their everyday business, from the factory gates to football matches, and is set to a specially commisioned score by the Shieffield-based duo In the Nursery.
Delicious Peace Grows in a Ugandan Coffee Bean

2010

Delicious Peace Grows in a Ugandan Coffee Bean

2010
The Abayudaya are Ugandan Jews, who once numbered 5000; but due to casualties from Idi Amin’s regime of terror, only a small group remains. Living with lingering intolerance as well as collapsed coffee prices, struggling Jewish, Christian and Muslim coffee farmers put aside their differences and form the Delicious Peace Coffee Cooperative. What follows is an uplifting and inspiring story.
Up Heartbreak Hill

2012

Up Heartbreak Hill

2012
Up Heartbreak Hill chronicles the lives of three high school seniors living on the Navajo Nation and struggling to shape their identities as both Native American and modern American. They must decide whether to stay in their community - a place inextricably woven into the fiber of their beings - or leave in pursuit of educational and economic opportunities.
Code of the West

2013

Code of the West

2013
At a time when the country is rethinking its drug policies large and small, one state raises to the forefront of national attention. Once a pioneer in legalizing medical marijuana, the state of Montana is poised to become the first in the nation to repeal its medical marijuana law. Set against the sweeping vistas of the Rockies, the steamy lamplight of marijuana grow houses, and the bustling halls of the State Capitol, CODE OF THE WEST follows the 2011 Montana State Legislature as it debates the fate of medical marijuana. This is the story of the many lives and fraught emotions tied to one of the most heated policy questions facing the country today
Housequake

2009

Housequake

2009
Capturing political theater at its most basic level, this documentary recounts the Democratic Party's stunning takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2006 elections, inspired by the aggressive tactics of strategist Rahm Emmanuel.